Chapter 75: An A-Rank Mental Sea
Ethan closed the door behind him, walked toward his bed, and sat down.
His expression became serious as he prepared himself.
Whatever had happened inside the Rift had changed him.
And now, for the first time, he was finally going to see just how much.
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Ethan stepped into his Mental Sea half expecting to see the familiar expanse of spiritual water he had grown accustomed to over the past few days, but the moment his consciousness settled inside, he stopped dead in his tracks, unable to move as he stared at the sight before him.
For several seconds, he could only stare, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing.
"This..."
His mouth fell open slightly as he slowly looked around, taking in every unfamiliar detail.
This was not the Mental Sea he remembered.
The transformation was so drastic that Ethan almost wondered whether he had somehow entered the wrong place, because the once relatively medium sized sea had expanded into an enormous spiritual ocean that stretched far beyond what his eyes could properly comprehend. Its surface no longer resembled ordinary water, instead shimmering with layers upon layers of condensed spiritual energy, while waves moved without any wind, rising and falling in slow, powerful rhythms as faint strands of luminous energy floated above the surface like mist.
The entire place felt alive.
More importantly, it felt powerful.
Ethan could immediately tell the difference between this Mental Sea and the one he had possessed when he was still an F-rank Guide. Even his D-rank Mental Sea, which had once made him feel as though he had finally escaped the bottom of the hierarchy, seemed pitiful in comparison.
He slowly raised his hand, watching as spiritual energy immediately gathered around his fingers, responding to him almost instinctively.
"This is seriously my Mental Sea?"
He looked around again in disbelief, still unable to fully comprehend the scale of the change.
According to Aster’s book, Guides who reached the higher ranks would experience a massive expansion in their Mental Sea, with their spiritual energy becoming denser, purer, and easier to control. B-rank and A-rank Guides were supposed to possess Mental Seas vast enough to sustain enormous amounts of spiritual power, and their ability to store, circulate, and manipulate that energy was on an entirely different level from lower-ranked Guides.
Ethan had expected an improvement.
He had not expected this.
He closed his eyes and focused for a moment, immediately sensing how much more easily spiritual energy moved through him now. There was no longer the same feeling of struggling to contain every bit of energy he gathered, nor did it feel as though his Mental Sea would overflow at the slightest increase. He could hold far more, circulate far more, and feel far more, with even his senses seeming sharper than before, just as Aster’s book had described.
Then his eyes suddenly narrowed.
"Wait..."
Something was different.
Something he had never seen before was sitting in the distance.
Ethan turned toward it, and his expression slowly changed as he realized that beyond the vast spiritual ocean, where there had once been nothing but endless mist, stood an enormous stone gate.
He stared at it for several seconds, his brows slowly knitting together.
"When the hell did that get there?"
The gate was gigantic, easily several times his height, with ancient markings carved into its surface. Pale spiritual light travelled through the carvings like veins, pulsing faintly beneath the stone.
Ethan cautiously approached, and the closer he got, the stronger the strange sensation became.
It did not feel hostile.
If anything, it felt as though the gate belonged here, as though it had been waiting for him.
He reached out and placed his palm against the cold surface, and the moment his fingers touched it, the entire gate trembled.
Ethan’s eyes widened.
Then, with a deep rumble that seemed to travel through his entire Mental Sea, the massive doors slowly began to open.
Ethan instinctively stepped back.
"What the..."
A bright spiritual light poured through the opening, forcing him to shield his eyes, and when the light finally faded, Ethan cautiously lowered his arm.
Then he forgot how to breathe.
There was another world beyond the gate.
Not another section of his Mental Sea.
An actual world.
A vast landscape stretched before him beneath a clear, ethereal sky filled with pale clouds and floating specks of spiritual light, while mountains rose in the distance, their peaks disappearing into mist, and enormous trees covered parts of the land in thick, glowing forests.
A river of luminous spiritual water wound through the landscape, reflecting the strange light above it, and somewhere in the distance, Ethan could hear the soft thunder of falling water.
He stepped through the gate, and the moment his feet touched the ground on the other side, a strange sense of peace washed over him.
He turned slowly, taking everything in as his eyes moved across the vast landscape.
"This is..."
He swallowed, still struggling to believe what he was seeing.
"My Mental Sea has a whole damn world inside it?"
There was no answer.
Of course there wasn’t.
Ethan continued forward, still unable to believe what he was seeing, until the sound of rushing water grew louder. When he finally reached the source, his eyes widened all over again as a magnificent waterfall poured down from a towering cliff, the water glowing faintly as it fell into a crystal-clear pool below.
The entire area was surrounded by luminous flowers, strange spiritual plants, and enormous trees whose leaves shimmered whenever the breeze passed through them, while the spiritual energy here was so dense that Ethan could almost see it floating in the air.
He slowly crouched beside the pool, staring at the crystal-clear water.
His first thought was simple.
Can I drink this?
His second thought was considerably more sensible.
What if it kills me?
Ethan stared at the water, then at the waterfall, before looking back at the water again.
"Well, it’s better to try and see, than to not try at all right?"